Most Americans have not done their estate planning yet. Only 24% of adults say they have a will, according to Caring.com’s 2025 Wills Survey. And 55% of them have zero estate planning documents of any kind.
Regardless of age or wealth, it’s important to have an estate plan to secure your family’s financial future. It is a comprehensive process that helps individuals protect their assets. With estate planning, individuals can help provide for loved ones, minimize legal complications, and ensure their wishes are honored if they become incapacitated or pass away.
A well-designed estate plan can also reduce family disputes. It can streamline the transfer of property and, in some cases, minimize taxes and probate costs.
But what are the steps to the estate planning process? Keep reading!
Step 1: Take Stock of What You Have
Estate planning starts way before any attorney is consulted. Having a detailed and current list of your assets and obligations is crucial. This includes your bank and investment accounts, real estate, retirement accounts with beneficiaries, life insurance policies, business stakes, and important personal belongings.
Designations on retirement accounts and life insurance policies override what your will says. A will will not override an outdated IRA beneficiary form. This is one of the most common and expensive mistakes in estate planning, but it’s not that difficult to fix.
It’s important to review those designations at the start of the process, not as an afterthought later, even if that seems more convenient.
Step 2: Create a Will
A will is the backbone of any estate plan. It tells who gets your assets, it can name a guardian for minor children, and it assigns an executor to put your wishes into action. Without a will, your estate slides into your state’s intestacy rules, which distribute property by a legal formula that might not reflect your real intentions.
Also, dying intestate means the court steps in and picks a guardian for your minor children, and that is a choice many parents would rather make themselves.
Picking an executor is a practical move. You want this person to be well organized, financially capable, and actually eager to take on the responsibilities. Decide on a backup option in case your first pick can’t serve.
If that executor says no to the appointment or can’t actually perform their duties, it can drag out the estate management, and that becomes a delay.
Step 3: Consider Whether a Trust Fits Your Situation
Just having a will cannot prevent your estate from going through probate proceedings. Property that is in your sole possession at the time of your death without having a specific beneficiary named for it will go through probate proceedings irrespective of what your will says.
While you are alive, a revocable living trust can hold all your property, and after your death, it can allocate it to the respective beneficiaries without going through the probate process.
Trusts are beneficial in various other aspects as well. Incapacity planning can be facilitated since a successor trustee can manage your estate in case you’re unable, without needing a court-supervised conservatorship.
Different objectives like Medicaid planning, creditor protection, and estate tax reduction for substantial estates are served by irrevocable trusts.
Which trust concept works best depends on the size and complexity of the estate and on the specific goals you’re trying to meet.
Step 4: Execute Powers of Attorney
A will and trust talk about what happens after death. A durable financial power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney talk about what happens if you become incapacitated while you’re still alive.
Without these papers, family members might end up having to go through the court process to set up guardianship or conservatorship. That can be required, so they’re able to manage your finances and make healthcare decisions legally.
A healthcare power of attorney names the person who will make medical decisions for you if you cannot. An advance healthcare directive, also known as a living will, outlines your specific wishes about life support, resuscitation, and artificial feeding.
A living will also contains your medical care preferences if you are unable to tell people your preferences due to illness or injury. These may include issues of organ donation, life support, and pain management, according to Ohio wills & probate lawyer John Martin Murphy.
These two documents are usually paired. They describe your medical wishes during emergencies and aim to reduce disagreements among family members with different viewpoints on your care.
Step 5: Review and Update as Life Changes
An estate plan that gets drafted once and then never touched again can become a bit unreliable. A lot of life transitions, like marriage or divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a named beneficiary, executor, or trustee, big changes to assets, or moving to another state, should trigger a full review, not just a glance.
Trust & Will’s 2025 Estate Planning Report noted that only 31% of Americans even have a will at all, and an even smaller group has revised theirs within the last three years.
Make sure to have a regular checkup of the will every few years. You must pay attention, especially with major life events, to keep beneficiary designations, executor appointments, and trust clauses correct and matched to where you are right now.
The review does not always mean rewriting everything from scratch. Sometimes it’s just a beneficiary form update or a targeted modification to one trust provision.
The Cost of Delay
Over the next several decades, an estimated $84 trillion in assets will transfer between generations in the United States. The families that move those assets efficiently will have estate plans already in place.
Without proper planning, families might face probate fees up to 10% of the estate, endure lengthy wait times for distributions, and see assets allocated in manners the original owner would not have chosen.
Estate planning is a set of choices made at a moment in time, and you should revisit it as circumstances evolve. The whole process is not that difficult for most people. What keeps it from happening is the belief that there is plenty of time to get to it later.